Archive for December, 2010

In 1897 a girl named Virginia O’Hanlon wrote the following letter to the New York Sun newspaper.

Dear Editor,

I am eight years old.
Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says “If you see it in The Sun it’s so.” Please tell me the truth: is there a Santa Claus?

This was the paper’s reply.

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except (what) they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there was no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAs. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We would have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. This is post number 235 on this site and I think I’ll take a little break now. I’ll be back writing again in January.

President Obama has announced that the United States is “on track” to achieve its goals in Afghanistan, those goals being to essentially end U.S. combat operations in 2014, turn over responsibility for the country to Afghans themselves by then and to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda and cripple their ability to launch terror attacks on America and its allies, which is why America went into Afghanistan in the first place…the whole idea was to fight them there so we didn’t have to fight them here.

Obama is dead wrong.

In order for the United States to end its combat operations in 2014 there has to be a competent, fully functioning Afghan military to replace its soldiers. That is simply not going to happen, no matter how much money and time is put into training and trying to increase the Afghan’s ability to take over from the Americans, defend their country and root out the Taliban and al-Qaeda (assuming they want to to begin with, which is one very large assumption). Even a cursory look at the situation on the ground will confirm this, regardless of how wildly optimistic the observer might be. It won’t happen by 2014 and given Afghan’s mentality, religion and history it will never happen.

Obama should know this.

In order for Afghan’s to take responsibility for their own affairs there has to be a national government in place which is free of corruption, acceptable to all of the country’s people, strong enough to keep all of Afghanistan’s warring parties in check, skilled enough to manage the nation’s resources and business and prescient enough to develop its national institutions and infrastructure. There is no precedent in Afghanistan’s history for this, none whatsoever. To think that it might happen by 2014, or 3014 either for that matter, is laughable. You can chalk that up to Afghan’s mentality, religion and history too.

Obama should know this as well.

He should also know that if one wants to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda and cripple its ability to launch terror attacks against the U.S. and its allies going after them in Afghanistan is the wrong way to do it. For one thing their presence in Afghanistan is negligible…the bulk of their fighters and senior figures are in Pakistan and the border regions and that is where the Americans must go if they wish to make real inroads against them in that part of the world. This they refuse to do. For another, al-Qaeda’s tentacles are worldwide and the organization is made up of cells all over the globe with no real central command structure. What happens in Afghanistan, Pakistan or the border regions has little or no impact on al-Qaeda’s ability to launch terror attacks against the West. Pouring so much effort into Afghanistan isn’t going to prevent Islamic murderers from setting off bombs in our cities and trying to kill or maim as many of us as they can. It hasn’t in the past and it won’t in the future.

So what are we really doing in Afghanistan and why does our President go around making ridiculous statements that fly in the face of reality? Damned if I know…politics and ideology maybe? I do know this though. His conduct of the war is one of the myriad reasons he should be tossed out of office in 2012.

With just over a week to go before Christmas terrorists acting in the name of Islam have tried to commit mass murder in Portland, Baltimore and Stockholm, Sweden this holiday season.

Other cities in North America and Europe may be added to the list as Christmas draws nearer. If Allah permits there might even be a successful attempt or two and hundreds or thousands of infidels will be killed or maimed.

Christmas greetings on behalf of Mohamed Osman Mohamud, Portland, Muhammad Hussain, Baltimore, Taimour Abdulwahab Al-Abdaly, Stockholm (in absentia) and all of Islam’s enablers and apologists who support and encourage their efforts and the efforts of others like them.

An Islamic terrorist named Taimour Abdulwahab Al-Abdaly attempted to murder and maim Christmas shoppers on a busy street in central Stockholm on Saturday December 11. Al-Abdaly, an Iraqi Swede who lived and studied in Britain and has a wife and three children still living there, failed and wound up killing himself by accident while wounding two other people. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said it was “a most worrying attempt at a terrorist attack.” and “it failed-but could have been truly catastrophic.”

Al-Abdaly’s motives were made absolutely clear in an e-mail he sent authorities prior to the attack…he was angry about Swedish artist Lars Vilks drawing of the Prophet Muhammad as a dog in a local newspaper in 2007 and at what he viewed as Sweden’s entirely inadequate response to the ‘insult’ and ‘provocation’ and he was also angry at the country’s presence in Afghanistan, where it has approximately 500 soldiers stationed. There is no question whatsoever that he acted in the name of Islam.

This is the first incident of its kind in Sweden but there could very well be many others, thanks to Islam and the large number of Muslims living in the country. The Swedes have added thousands of people from Muslim lands to their population in recent years with the usual predictable results…there are no go zones for police, self imposed Muslim ghettos where Islam, including Sharia, reigns supreme, hatred, bigotry and violence towards Jews and Christians is a significant and growing phenomenon, social welfare costs have skyrocketed and more and more demands are being made on the larger society to accomodate Islamic imperatives at the expense of Swedish culture and the Swedish way of life. Islamization is proceeding rapidly despite the deleterious effect on the nation and its people and the Swedes have turned a blind eye to it until now. We can speculate on the reasons all we want to (ignorance of the true nature of Islam, fear, misplaced optimism, willful blindness, left wing socialist attitudes, whatever) but that is exactly what they have done.

Perhaps this incident will shock them out of their slumber and lead them to take meamingful, concrete measures to prevent Islam from taking over their country. Other countries in Europe are waking up to the Islamic threat and taking steps to combat it. Let’s hope Sweden does too. The short term pain will be well worth the long term gain. Sweden, like all Western nations (including the United States and Canada) is in a war for survival with Islam and the sooner it gets serious about winning it the better.

Iran is planning to put medium range missiles in Venezuela which could hit targets in the United States. This is a serious threat to the national security of the U.S., probably the most serious threat she faces today. Iran’s hatred of America and revulsion for all things American is palpable and constant vilification and denunciation of the United States, otherwise known as the Great Satan, is a feature of Iranian life and has been for many years. The only possible reason Iran would place missiles in Venezuela is to use them against the U.S. There is no other explanation. Given the fact that the Iranians may soon possess nuclear weapons and already have missiles capable of delivering them their intent is clear. Israel, the Little Satan, is not the only nation that is in Iran’s line of fire. America is too.

None of this is news to President Obama. The question is, what is he going to do about it? The answer is, nothing. That’s right, nothing. One thing and one thing only can keep nuclear weapons out of Iran’s hands and prevent the Iranian’s from using them against the United States and Israel. That is the destruction of Iran’s nuclear development facilities and the elimination of its ability to produce nuclear weapons. A military attack is the only way to achieve this. Unfortunately, Obama will never authorize the American military to attack Iran, no matter what the circumstances are. We can speculate on the reasons from now until doomsday but it simply is not going to happen.

Enter Israel. While President Obama is a weak, feckless narcissist and ideologue who has been taken advantage of by America’s enemies since the day he took office the Israelis have no illusions and will in the end attack and destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities as a matter of national survival. That is going to happen in fairly short order because Iran is on the cusp of becoming a nuclear power and Israel cannot wait much longer, notwithstanding the relative success of the Stuxnet computer worm. Millions of lives will be saved in the Middle East when it does and so will millions of lives in the United States. It will also be a giant step towards peace and stability in the world as the globe’s leading exporter of state sponsored terrorism and arguably the most war mongering country on the planet will be neutered.

No thanks to President Obama. Unlike President Kennedy who stood up to the Russians during the Cuban missile crisis Obama doesn’t have the cojones to stand up to anyone. That is something America’s enemies are well aware of, which makes the world much more dangerous and volatile and jeopardizes all of our lives.

Whatever the motivation was for the WikiLeak releases it certainly was not to encourage the free exchange of ideas or foster a range of discussion on contentious issues in public, especially on the internet and especially by people who do not share Julian Assange’s world view. Anyone who is critical of Assange or expresses a viewpoint contrary to his or his followers on any number of subjects could easily find themselves victimized through a cyber attack. The internet being what it is and his acolytes being what they are their bank accounts could be compromised, their personal information could be disseminated to all and sundry, lies and distortions could be spread about them, their website could be taken down and so on. The releases won’t lead to open and frank dialogue or honest debate. They will have exactly the opposite effect. People will be afraid to express dissenting opinions and will choose to silence themselves for fear of being harmed in some way.

For example, a particular individual might take issue with Mr. Assange’s professed noble intentions in releasing the documents and wish to express the opinion that he is really a megalomaniac who requires constant media attention to maintain his sense of self importance, which is why he released them in the first place…what better way to get the whole world to focus on him? Another individual might wish to express the opinion that he is in reality a spoiled child and a thief and that his actions have caused a great deal of damage to people who actually do an enormous amount of good in the world. A third person might wish to express the opinion that Assange is a coldblooded bully and simpleton who is incapable of understanding anyone or anything outside his frame of reference or of recognizing the truly terrible nature of his deeds. A fourth person might wish to opine that he be prosecuted to the full extent of the law on a wide variety of charges, including treason. Any or all of these people might choose not to express themselves because ‘some things are better left unsaid.’ Encouraging free expression and open and honest discussion through the WikiLeaks? Not so. Discouraging is much more like it.

What do I think? All of the above, that’s what. Julian Assange is many things, but a hero he is not.

Any fresh peace initiative Washington comes up with is doomed to fail because the Palestinians don’t want peace with Israel and never have. They have never demonstrated their willingness and ability to live in peace with Israel. Never. All they have ever demonstrated is their unbridled hatred of Jews and their fervent wish to destroy the Jewish state. Everything they do has two goals in mind and two goals only-to remove Israel from the face of the earth and rid the land of Jewish people. That is the case today and that has been the case from the very beginning and any honest, unbiased reading of history will confirm it. Peace is simply not possible until this changes and since change is not going to happen in the foreseeable future any initiative by Washington is both futile and foolish. Futile because it has no chance of success and foolish because the United States doesn’t recognize that fact and is pressing on at great cost to her own national security interests and prestige. Peace between Israel and the Palestinians will come when the Palestinians truly desire it and actually make the necessary changes in their attitudes and behavior to achieve it, not before. Until then, any initiative by Washington is a waste of time and energy and makes the U.S. look ignorant, impotent, clumsy and desperate.